Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway • Hacker News Board

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#61

Post by izacus » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:15 PM UTC

todd3834 wrote: post #19

tombert wrote: post #8

I started using DDG as my default search engine about 6 months ago, and for 95% of the searches I do it's totally fine. I don't know why people think that DDG needs to "stop" Google; did people think that Lycos and Infoseek and Yahoo couldn't coexist back in the 90's? I think it's good that both companies have some competition from each other.

history has mostly shown a zero-sum game when it comes to search. Didn’t all of those other search engines you listed die off? Even Bing has been mostly irrelevant in comparison to Google. Also a lot of DDG users came over because they were unhappy with some of Google’s practices. Therefore it’s natural for them to want to justify their decision as a good choice by hoping the rest of the world comes to the same concl…

> history has mostly shown a zero-sum game when it comes to search. Didn’t all of those other search engines you listed die off? Even Bing has been mostly irrelevant in comparison to Google. Also a lot of DDG users came over because they were unhappy with some of Google’s practices. Therefore it’s natural for them to want to justify their decision as a good choice by hoping the rest of the world comes to the same conclusion.

What does that imply about sustainability of free market capitalism?

After all, all market benefits and dynamics die off if people on the market are unable to exercise choice.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#62

Post by pnloyd » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:18 PM UTC

thinkingemote wrote: post #33

fareesh wrote: post #13

I use DDG by default. If I am not satisifed I simply prepend !g to my query. The bangs feature is really useful to me personally since it supports so many sites. https://duckduckgo.com/bang My only complaint is that it's noticeably slower than Google

id imagine speed isn't a current priority for Google as Gmail, calendar and maps have shown. It's probably a hold over from before, I'd give it a year before they roll out some improvement that allows it down.

This couldn't be farther from the truth. More speed means more page views means more ads seen means more revenue. Walmart Amazon plus others have done studies showing faster load times translates directly into increased revenue in there retail.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#63

Post by rcMgD2BwE72F » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

porpoisely wrote: post #40

It's clickbait hyperbole to say nothing can stop google. Google will fall once something usurps their dominant platform advantage ( chrome/search/android ). People said the same thing about Microsoft/IE when microsoft leveraged their dominant OS position to take over the browser market. But once google search became just as important or even more important than the Windows itself, they leveraged their search platform…

Please tell me how to use a smartphone without being locked in the Apple platform or Google's. I'm well aware of LineageOS (and other ROM) and of F-Droid (and Yalp and others) but in reality, it's impossible not to supply Google with vast amount of personal data.

So for now, it's true that "nothing can stop google". Unless we change the situation (e.g legal/political actions), this won't change. But of course, if we collectively admit nothing can stop Google now, then we'll do something that makes it possible to stop Google and have some real competitors.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#64

Post by potta_coffee » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:20 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #8

I started using DDG as my default search engine about 6 months ago, and for 95% of the searches I do it's totally fine. I don't know why people think that DDG needs to "stop" Google; did people think that Lycos and Infoseek and Yahoo couldn't coexist back in the 90's? I think it's good that both companies have some competition from each other.

I'm more than happy if Google continues to exist and I have an acceptable alternative for my own use.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#65

Post by mda » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

Gitnumb wrote: post #50

DDG can win by becoming the king of porn searches. Bing and pornhub are the competition, not Google. Porn brings massive traffic, then they'll use the site for other things.

DDG = Bing anyways.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#66

Post by darkpuma » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

kojeovo wrote: post #21

tombert wrote: post #8

I started using DDG as my default search engine about 6 months ago, and for 95% of the searches I do it's totally fine. I don't know why people think that DDG needs to "stop" Google; did people think that Lycos and Infoseek and Yahoo couldn't coexist back in the 90's? I think it's good that both companies have some competition from each other.

95% just isn't good enough.

It's good enough 95% of the time.

There is nothing stopping you from falling back to google that 5% of the time.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#67

Post by jhoechtl » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

twodave wrote: post #43

bunderbunder wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because, in the current economic environment, there really isn't much room in the markets for choices. It's increasingly been one quasi-monopoly that everyone knows about, and then a bunch of niche options for people who dislike the monopoly player for whatever reason.

Oh? Let's pick an easy market to judge this against, then. I know! Let's talk about smartphones. Surely the largest company on the planet is a quasi-monopoly in this space... oh, but they're not. In fact, Apple's not even a majority leader in just the USA, and the numbers favor them even less globally. There is clearly a choice in the cell phone market between privacy, quality and cost, and people are making those ch…

Digital asset vs. tangible good differ significantly in the applicable market dynamics.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#68

Post by DigiMortal » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

I use DDG as my main search engine. Though sometimes frustrated with the results that it pulls, then I go to Google. I'm sure DDG can only improve, I will continue to use them.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#69

Post by jackfoxy » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:23 PM UTC

Bing gives me points I can cash in for Amazon gift cards. I rarely fall back to G, and when I do it seems like the sponsored search results are much more intrusive than even those on Bing. What I'd really like is a meta-search engine incorporating Bing, G, and DDG...but I have never gotten around to doing this myself and don't know of any OSS project that does this. What's most disappointing about Bing is the lack of good search results from Microsoft tech documentation.

Re: Nothing Can Stop Google. DuckDuckGo Is Trying Anyway

#70

Post by uncletaco » Thu, Jan 17, 2019, 4:24 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #8

I started using DDG as my default search engine about 6 months ago, and for 95% of the searches I do it's totally fine. I don't know why people think that DDG needs to "stop" Google; did people think that Lycos and Infoseek and Yahoo couldn't coexist back in the 90's? I think it's good that both companies have some competition from each other.

I've used DDG for about four years but not really to do DDG searches. I use its "!" prefixes so that I can do something similar to chrome's omnibox search with different engines in other browsers without thinking about it. Its muscle memory now for me to !g, !w, or !a whenever I need to search a specific site for something.